Kingston school district offers retirement incentive

KINGSTON, N.Y. -- Eligible Kingston school district employees have until Feb. 19 to decide if they want to accept a retirement incentive of up to $25,000.

The Board of Education this week authorized a "lump-sum cash payment" retirement incentive of 25 percent of an employee's 2012-13 base salary, capped at $25,000, for members of the Kingston Teachers Federation, Educational Support Professionals, the Administrative and Supervisory Personnel Association, and the Civil Service Employees Association.

In addition to unionized employees with at least 10 years of service who are at least 55 years old, the district also has extended the incentives to non-union employees.

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The move, which comes as the administration continues to craft a 2013-14 budget, is a common cost-cutting tactic among local school districts.

The idea behind retirement incentives is to replace highly paid veterans with lower-paid new hires to save money both in the short and long terms. New Kingston teachers are hired at a base salary of $50,847, and the top base salary with a master's degree is $94,543 after 23 years.

Replacing a teacher making the maximum base salary, plus a $6,000 longevity bonus added between years 20 and 24, with a teacher fresh out of college would save about $26,060 in the first year after accounting for the incentive, then $47,996 in the second year.

District Superintendent Paul Padalino recently said the administration is projecting a budget gap for 2013-14 of about $5 million without factoring in the anticipated $4.76 million in savings from closing three elementary schools in June.

Although a gap of about $240,000 would be left if all of the savings from the school closures are applied to the deficit, Padalino has said some of the savings from the reconfiguration will have to be reinvested in areas like transportation and infrastructure to make the transition work.

Padalino, who noted he became superintendent in the midst of the budget process last year, said he plans to hold more public budget forums, starting with one focusing on the fledgling spending plan for 2013-14. That hearing will take place at 6 p.m. Feb. 27 in the district's administrative building at 61 Crown St. in Kingston, followed by forums on March 13, April 4 and April 10.